Examinations of Witnesses (Questions 278-279)
MR NICK
SOMERFIELD
9 SEPTEMBER 2004
Q278 Mr Mitchell: We are
very grateful to you for coming, Mr Somerfield. May I start with
a question we have been asking everybody? What do you think is
good about this Bill and what do you think is bad about this Bill.
Could you give us an overview?
Mr Somerfield: I think the good
bit is that it clarifies a number of issues which some of us were
not aware of beforehand, I admit, the legislation that exists
already. The bad bit is the somewhat intimidatory aspect of the
entry, a point made by previous witnesses. When I first read this,
I wondered whether I was living in Germany in the Thirties. I
thought that Adolf was not too free with his consultation papers,
so perhaps I am still in a democracy after all! I realised from
discussion of many people within the industry that it is perhaps
not quite as bad as would appear. I understand the Bill is very
much in draft form, so we can modify it. May I make some points
independently? I think the Committee can be quite encouraged that
there is a reduction in numbers of livestock kept, or there will
be as a result of the area payments scheme, which is now being
instigated. As you will be aware, in Wales most of the farms are
family farms where the standard of husbandry is extremely high.
I think these are the most efficient units there are. My old adversary,
Sean Rickard, who advocates bigger is better and intends to make
Wales into a big ranch if he can has been proven wrong in that
aspect. There are increasing numbers in dairy units but hill sheep
and cattle are possibly on too much of a decline now, certainly
cattle numbers, to such an extent that the Countryside Council
for Wales is rather bothered about not having mixed grazing on
the hills. I personally have a flock of hill sheep on a very high
hill at the western end of the Brecon Beacons. We have stuck to
the indigenous breeds, so we do not have the welfare problems
of lambing as they are outside all the time and the problems are
minimal. One of the big problems is manpower. The average age
for workers is 59-60 in the Welsh hills and no youngsters are
following on. This is a huge problem, coupled with the fact that
there we have a terrible shortage of large animal vets. People
are just not going into large animal practices. There lie our
inspector problems.
Mr Mitchell: You have given us a picture
of a doddering group of farmers travelling over the hills pursuing
a free body of sheep.
Q279 Mr Lepper: Thank you for that description
of farming in Wales as it exists at the moment. One of the things
you have mentioned in relation to your own farm is the numbers
of sheep on hillsides, which is the natural place for them to
be, I guess. I believe your organisation does have concerns in
respect of these definitions of abandonment and the consequences.
Could you tell us a bit more about that?
Mr Somerfield: Tim Bennett has
covered one aspect of this. We are in the Brecon Beacons National
Park, which is criss-crossed with footpaths. We frequently have
walkers turning up with abandoned lambs that are not abandoned
at all; they are sheltering under a gorse bush or somewhere in
the pouring rain. We have a wonderful number of so-called experts
who have watched a couple of episodes of Country File and
listened to The Archers and they know more about it than
we do. The other aspect we find is that there is almost, and I
think this is slightly media inspired, a vindictive attitude with
a self-appointed police force. Whereas in the past if I had a
dead sheep—and of course the sheep will always die on the
footpaths, never anywhere else, preferably by a style where several
paths meet—people would come and say, "Do you know
you have a dead sheep there?", now they are immediately on
a mobile phone to Animal Health and they know the number. They
are out in the countryside, I would not say for trouble but for
points to contest. Yes, there are pressures, public pressure,
people walking, people with dogs chasing around, people putting
themselves at risk by walking amongst suckler cows which have
young calves afoot. They gather up the dog when the cows come
running and they are putting themselves in huge danger. Basically
it is a lack of understanding. Country File does a certain
amount of good but I feel a country code could be put out to give
people more understanding of animal behaviour.
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